Lecture
Van Marum Colloquium: Hexagonal and amorphous boron nitride thin films
- Date
- Wednesday 27 March 2024
- Time
- Location
-
Gorlaeus Building
Einsteinweg 55
2333 CC Leiden - Room
- DM.1.15
Abstract
Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is a promising two-dimensional (2D) material owing to its unique optical properties in the deep-UV region, mechanical robustness, thermal stability, and chemical inertness. hBN thin films have gained significant attention for various applications, including nanoelectronics, photonics, single photon emission, anti-corrosion, and membranes. Thus, wafer-scale growth of hBN films is crucial to enable their industrial-scale applications. In this regard, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a promising method for scalable high-quality films. To date, considerable efforts have been made to develop continuous hBN thin films with high crystallinity, from those with large grains to single-crystal ones, and to realize thickness control of hBN films by CVD. However, the growth of wafer-scale high crystalline hBN films with precise thickness control has not been reported yet. The hBN growth is significantly affected by substrate, in particular the type of metals, because the intrinsic solubilities of boron and nitrogen depend on the type of metal. In this talk, state-of-the-art strategies adopted for growing wafer-scale, highly crystalline hBN are summarized, followed by the proposed mechanisms of hBN growth on catalytic substrates [1]. Furthermore, various applications of the hBN thin films are demonstrated, including a dielectric layer, an encapsulation layer, a wrapping layer of gold nanoparticles for surface enhanced Raman scattering, a proton-exchange membrane, a template for growth of other 2D materials or nanomaterials, and a platform of fabricating in-plane heterostructures. In addition, amorphous BN (aBN) as a counterpart of crystalline hBN is introduced [2]. Detailed structural characterisation indicates that a-BN is sp2-hybridised, with no measurable crystallinity, and mechanically robust, with excellent diffusion-barrier characteristics. The aBN thin film shows ultra-low dielectric constant (< 2.5), indicating great potential for its applications in Cu interconnects of integrated circuits.
- K. Y. Ma et al., Nature 606, 88 (2022).
- S. Hong et al., Nature 582, 511 (2020).
Biography
Dr. Hyeon Suk Shin, FRSC
Center for 2D Quantum Heterostructures, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea.
Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea.
Associate editor, npj 2D Materials and Applications
Hyeon Suk Shin is the director of IBS Center for 2D Quantum Heterostructures at SKKU and a professor at Department of Energy Science, SKKU. Before joining IBS center and SKKU, he was a UNIST endowed chair professor at Department of Chemistry, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Korea. He received his PhD from Department of Chemistry at POSTECH in 2002. After working as a postdoctoral fellow at University of Cambridge, UK and subsequently as a research Professor at POSTECH, he joined UNIST in 2008 and recently moved to SKKU to become the director of the IBS center at SKKU in 2024. He received ‘Scientist of the Month’ award (Ministry of Science and ICT) in 2023, Grand Academic Award (UNIST) in 2023, 'Top 100 National R&D Outstanding Achievements' award (Ministry of Science and ICT) in 2021, Sigma-Aldrich Excellent Chemist Award (Korean Chemical Society) in 2021, Basic Researcher of the Year award (Ministry of Science and ICT, Republic of Korea) in 2020, Creative Knowledge Award (Minster Award by Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning) in 2015, outstanding researcher award (Materials Chemistry Division, KCS) in 2015, the Faculty of the Year award of UNIST in 2014, and the Minister award of Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Korea in 2012. His current research focuses on 2D materials, their amorphous structures, and their applications for energy conversion and storage.